Your STaR coach guest today is Dr. Robert Hicks, the Director of Executive Coaching at the UT Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Management. His book,“Coaching as a Leadership Style: The Art and Science of Coaching Conversations for Healthcare Professionals” introduces a unique and practical coaching style as a way of interacting with colleagues, managing direct-reports, helping others solve problems, responding to change, making effective choices and developing professionally. He is Clinical Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Texas at Dallas and founding director of the Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching Program in the School of Management. He is a licensed Psychologist (Industrial and Organizational Psychology) and holds an appointment as Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

He has over three decades of experience as a Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach to many fortune 500 companies. He is a recognized expert in leadership development, organizational change, team development, selection and assessment, and, the coaching and development of professionals. He is also the director of a Masters in Management and Administrative Sciences, with a Concentration in Healthcare Management program that is offered in partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center for their administrative and clinical faculty leaders.

Show notes:

How a clinical psychologist became an executive coach

As a clinical psychologist he was regarded as a coach

Dr. Hicks’ book is a resource material for coaching practitioners

How he built his theory and framework

Dr. Hicks can use a solution-based approach to coaching

A client agenda, a client’s goal so it is client-driven

Does one have to be a psychologist to become a successful coach?

The importance of having a map of your competencies

Quotable quote: “Focusing on the future creates more useful energy than focusing on the past.”